


Pretty in Red

by Beastrage



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Stunticons, Wreckers, mentioned death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2016-12-10
Packaged: 2018-09-02 21:16:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8683672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beastrage/pseuds/Beastrage
Summary: Before Knock Out, there was Drag Strip.





	

Red suits Knock Out. It is a color full of passion and life, where purple and blue only veer towards coldness. 

Yellow, for such a bright color, is awfully drab. Yellow is the color of stars, of Autobots (certain irritating Autobots). Yellow gets so grimy, grubby, _disgusting,_ especially on organic worlds. Red in some ways takes on the grit better (though Knock Out will never let that occur, not if he can help it). 

Yellow only makes you a bigger target. 

Breakdown knows this for a fact. 

* * *

It is war, repairing a broken mech. A challenge that Knock Out must always win. 

Losing means a dead mech, but there are always dead mechs. No, Knock Out cares about the winning part of it, more than anything. 

That's the reason he races. To feel the road under his tires, to feel the wind brushing his armor, but most of all, to win.

Breakdown helps him clean off the dust every time he returns from a race, without complaint. The large mech always listens to Knock Out's boasts of victory (and avoidances of failure) patiently. There's a strange look in those yellow optics when he does, though.

If Knock Out didn't know better, he would say it was...hope.

* * *

There's something about Prime's alt-mode that strikes Knock Out as familiar. 

It's certainly attractive enough, considering it belongs to an Autobot. 

But Knock Out thinks it would look better in purple and grey...Decepticon colors.

* * *

 

 Sometimes Knock Out just wants to drive. Drive until his tanks are almost empty, drive until there's nothing left but fumes. 

Driving feels like filling a hole, somewhere. A hole that can only otherwise be filled in Breakdown's presence. Unfortunately, he has to stay in the med-bay today, keeping watch over the Decepticon Lord laying in stasis lock there. And Breakdown is on a mission.

There is energon on his hands that cannot be washed off and it  _burns._ Knock Out paces and paces.  

The Vehicons and Eradicons alike know to avoid him when he's in this type of mood, so they do. Not that they ever go to the med-bay anyway, when they have a choice in the matter. (Which they don't.) 

Breakdown will come back. He has to. He always has. (Until the day he doesn't.)

* * *

 Cybertronians don't dream. 

Dreaming is a purely human thing. 

Knock Out knows this, everyone knows that. (Except the humans.)

Sometimes, though, during recharge, he almost dreams. Of another time, before war. Of having brothers, of being brothers with Breakdown. Racing to the edge of the horizon, fighting and laughing. Tumbling and struggling in the crystal wastes on forbidden racetracks. 

When he comes online, a sudden gasp of his vents, reality always kicks in. He is Knock Out, and Knock Out is alone. 

He has no brothers and never did. 

* * *

When Breakdown dies, Knock Out feels like someone ripped his spark out. 

Clutching at his spark-casing, he makes excuses and stumbles to his room. He locks the door behind him securely and weeps. Weeps without tears, with his spark fluttering like it's going to die out. An ember in an already dying fire. 

The pain feels like how it's been described to him how spark-mates die. A spark going out, and with its disappearance, a black hole tries to drag its opposite down to death as well. Which is ridiculous because Knock Out never bonded to Breakdown. Not that he didn't want to...but Breakdown always said no.

He burns but he doesn't go out. Not yet. 

Because Knock Out is a survivor. He will not die of spark-break. _You survived all of the other deaths, after all,_ some thought whispers, but it's gone before Knock Out can truly grasp it. 

For the first time, Knock Out is truly, forever alone. 

* * *

He hates the Wreckers. They're so...ugly. Really, the green and grey paint jobs? Awful! Too big, too clumsy, too lumpy. Knock Out hates the Wreckers, more than any other Autobot, just like Breakdown does. 

He hates them for reasons deeper than ugliness, but he can't quite recall what. 

(Somewhere, somewhen, Wheeljack tears open a red-and-black mech while Bulkhead attacks another red mech with his fists. On the ground, a yellow mech lays still, too still. An energon puddle forming around him, bleeding out.)

(He's not dead yet. But he might as well be.) 

* * *

"Save him, he's the only brother i have left." A blue mech begs.

The medic harumphs, turning to his work. A shattered yellow mech, under his knife. "If he lives, he may never remember. His processor is too damaged. In fact, it made be better if he never remembers," he warns.

The blue mech nods frantically. "I don't care, just save him!"

"Alright, alright, calm down already."

The repairs take painfully long but at the end of it, the yellow mech rests peacefully. Even with his face missing, he recharges calmly out of danger.

The blue mech rubs his chestplates, his spark burning. Searching for the missing members of various bonds. He knows his spark will never find those bondmates again. Not when they're gone forever. Motormaster, Dead End, Wildrider...all gone. Only he and Drag Strip remain. 

"I can repaint him if you like, along with a rebuild of his faceplates," the medic offers, "I have spare paints. As long as you can pay, of course..."

The blue mech doesn't hesitate. It is better this way, to hide his surviving brother, if he no longer looks the same. "Red. Don't worry about the credits, I have them," he says firmly, remembering a wild laughing mech and one who complained about everything. 

"A designation?" The medic asks, white neutral optics watching the blue mech steadily. 

Breakdown looks right back, yellow meeting white, and says, "Knock Out." 

 

 

 

 


End file.
